1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a uranium leaching method and, more particularly, to a highly efficient uranium leaching method using ultrasound, which may improve uranium leaching efficiency by adding sulfuric acid to uranium ore while applying ultrasound thereto.
2. Description of the Related Art
When uranium ore is leached in a sulfuric acid solution, uranium oxide contained in the uranium ore is oxidized into uranium oxide cations (UO22+) by trivalent iron ions (Fe3+) and leaches in the solution.
When black slate uranium ore is added to and leached in a sulfuric acid solution, iron components contained in the black slate ore must be preferentially dissolved in the sulfuric acid solution to oxidize uranium, so that uranium leaches in the solution. However, since such a process is very slowly carried out for about a few dozen to hundreds of hours, not only does this process take too much time in uranium leaching, a low leaching rate is also obtained.